Street-car barn



Mlln 2U), 1923; y 31,449,202 wf. F. -sNo- IR STREET CAR BARN Filed Feb.l0, 1922 Patented itilar.. 2Q), 11923;,

WILLIAM: F. SINGER, F CHCAGO, ILLIN'DI.

STREET-CAR BARN.

Application filed February 10, 1922.

To ZZ whom may concern:

Be it known that l, WILLIAM F. SNorrn, a citizen of the `United States.residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and `State of illinois, haveinvented a new and useful improvement in Street-Car Barns, of which thefollowing is a specification.

This invention relates to street car barns and the like.

The primary object of the invention to provide means whereby street carscan be quickly moved in case of a fire in the car barn.

Another object is to provide means for signalling when said means isoperated and for simultaneously closing fire doors, curtains andpartitions, so as to localize any fire that may start in the car barn.

These and other objects are accomplished by this invention, which isfully described in the following specification and shown in theaccompanying drawing, in which the figure is a diagrammatic plan view ofa car barn equipped with my invention.

rlhe embodiment illustrated comprises a car barn having side-walls 10having openings 11 therein, through which are laid car-tracks 12 in anywell known manner. @verhead trolley wires 13 are supported above thetracks and these are connected to the two main trolley wires 14 and 15and consequently are always charged.

second trolley wire 16 is placed along side each trolley wire 13 andinsulated therefrom by a suitable insulator 17, at each end thereof.These are connected by means of a lead 18, a switch 19 and a lead 20with the trolley wire 14. Normally the switch 19 is open as shown, sothat these trolley wires 16 are dead The operation of this much of thesystem is as follows: Cars (not shown) are run into the car barn, thecar controllers are turned to neutral position and the trolleys areremoved from the charged or live trolley wires 13 and placed upon thedead trolley wires 16. ln case of fire, the switch 19, which ispreferably located in the superintendents office, is closed and all thetrolley wires 16 50 become charged. rlhe trolleys are already on thesewires and a great deal ofvtime is thereby saved over the present methodof using a single trolley and having to replace each trolley upon thewire before the car can Serial No. 535,622.

be started, as is now commonly done. The time required to empty a carbarn of cars is consequently greatly reduced, and in case of lire, thenumber of cars it would be possible to save in a given time would begreatly increased.

l/Vhile only one switch 19 is shown, it will be understood that aseparate switch may be used on each trolley wire 16, if desired.

A. lead 21 connects the city fire alarm sys tem (not shown) with thelead 18, through the switch 22 which is normally closed. When,therefore, the switch 19 is closed, the city fire alarm is sounded.

In the same way the lines 21a and 21b op erate respectively a local firealarm and mechanism for closing fire doors, curtains and partitions fordividing the car barn into sections, so as to prevent the rapid spreadof the fire.

l,While l have shown and described certain embodiments of my invention,it is to be understood that it is capable of many modifications.Changes, therefore, in the construction and arrangement may be madewithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention asdisclosed in the appended claims, in which it is my intention to claimall novelty inherent in my invention as broadly as possible in view ofthe prior art.

What ll claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. ln. a street car barn and the like, a track, a live trolley wireadjacent the track, a dead trolley wire insulated from said live trolleywire and parallel thereto, so that a trolley of a car on said track mayreadily be shifted to either trolley wire, and means for connecting saiddead trolley wire with a source of electric current.

2. ln a street car barn and the like, a plurality of tracks, a livetrolley wire adjacent each track, a dead trolley wire insulated fromeach live trolley wire and parallel thereto, so that a trolley of a caron one of said tracks may readily shifted to either mi l trolley wire,and means for connecting said dead trolley wires with a source ofelectric current.

3. ln a street car barn and the like, a plurality of tracks, a livetrolley wire adjacent each track, a dead trolley wire insulated fromeach live trolley wire and parallel thereto, so that a trolley of a caron one of said tracks may be readily shifted to either sulated from eachlive trolley Wire' and trolley Wire, and a switch for connectingparallel thereto, so that a trolley oi' al car ou said dead trolleyWires Witha source o'l eleeone of said tracks may be readily shifted to10 tric current. either trolley Wire, and .means .''or c oiinectv ln astreet oar barn and the like, a ing said dead trolley Wires in parallelwith plurality of tracks, a live trolley Wire ada source of electriclcurrent.

jacent each track, a cleacl .trolley -Wire in# NLLIAM F. SNOHR,

